TOC migrating….

Hi everyone,

If you’re looking for theonlinecitizen, well we have moved.

Our new site is at http://theonlinecitizen.com. Please remember to change your bookmark and/or your RSS feed which can be obtained at the new blog.

This site - http://theonlinecitizen.wordpress.com - will be left as it is and you can still view the content here. However, comments posting is disabled.

If you are experiencing difficulties accessing the new site, please drop us an email and let us know. We can be reached at: theonlinecitizen@gmail.com

See you at the new TOC!

Regards,

Andrew Loh

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Reducing commuting time - national effort needed

Tan Kin Lian

Like most big cities, Singapore is getting over-crowded. It is easy to build highrise apartments and offices for a bigger population but the challenge is in transporting these people between their homes and workplaces and back.

A denser population has led to congested roads, crowded trains and buses and long commuting time. Road traffic is a major contributor to the high energy consumption and increase in oil prices in recent years.

We have to find ways to reduce the need for commuting. People should be encouraged to find work near their homes or to move their homes closer to their places of work. Students should be encouraged to study in a school near their homes too.

Survey on socio-political blogs by NTU student

TOC would like to give our support to the following and we urge our readers to do so as well.

A NTU Masters student is conducting an Internet survey on ”Internet Users’ Perceptions of Socio-Political Blog Credibility in Singapore”.

The survey comprises 19 questions and will take approximately 10 minutes to complete. This survey will run throughout May 2008 and respondents stand a chance of winning $200 cash.

If interested, please click here.

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Does Singapore deserve its press freedom ranking?

Terence Lee

In a 2008 survey by Freedom House, Singapore has shown no improvement in its freedom of the press, despite the maturing of online media as a medium to air alternative views.

The latest results reveal nothing new: much has already been said about the deplorable state of press freedom in Singapore, ranked a lowly 153^rd out of 195 countries, sharing the same ranking as Iraq. The idea that Singapore is first-world in economic competitiveness but third-world in press freedom and civil liberties has already become an over-sung tune.

A check with Freedom House’s past survey results revealed that Singapore has not only been stagnating, but has in fact deteriorated in terms of press freedom, increasing from a score of 60 (the lower the score, the freer the press) in 1994 to 69 in 2008.

Uniquely Singapore

Uniquely Singapore

The Unions, the Press, and the People - Part II

CASE’s Relationship with NTUC

Leong Sze Hian

The National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) founded the Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE) in 1971, and it remains an institution member today. (938 Live) (CASE’s letter to Business Times)

According to NTUC’s web site:

The NTUC Family includes 9 co-operatives, and 6 affiliated organizations - the Singapore Labour Foundation, NTUC Club, NTUC Link, the Ong Teng Cheong Institute of Labour Studies, NTUC LearningHub, and the Consumers’ Association of Singapore, and the Employment and Employability Institute (e2i).

NTUC is the parent body of CASE.

Give credit where credit is due, Andy

Andrew Loh

A recent public forum about youth concerns raised the issue of lowering the voting age to 18.

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Perhaps a post-1965 Member of Parliament might initiate the debate to enfranchise these trustees of our posterity.

- Andy Ho, Senior Writer, Straits Times, May 8, 2008, “If old enough for NS, why not the vote?”

The above are quotes from Ho’s article. The first one is the very first line of his piece, and the second one the very last sentence from it.

The Unions, the Press and the People

Leong Sze Hian & Choo Zheng Xi

Let the people eat…detergent?

Does the media’s reporting of detergent prices reveal a deeper conflict of interest that may harm the country?

Once in awhile pearls of wisdom are found in The New Paper. Larry Havekamp a.k.a. Dr Money, in his financial column in The New Paper, likened statistics to bikinis: what they reveal is suggestive, what they conceal is vital (New Paper, May 5).

We refer to the article in the Straits Times headlined “Rice and cooking oil lead price rise: New Case survey of prices across retailers points out cheaper options for buyers” (Straits Times, May 3).

Aljunied Town Council - Taking the easy way out?

Leong Sze Hian & Andrew Loh

All 14 town councils run by the People’s Action Party (PAP) will not be increasing their Service and Conservancy (S&C) charges this year.

- Channel NewsAsia, “PAP town councils to freeze S&C charges this year” (February 28, 2008)

Barely two and a half months later, on May 5 2008, this is what ‘officials’ at the PAP-run Aljunied Town Council (TC) said:

Officials also said they will consider raising the conservancy charges for the dirtiest precincts to cover the extra work that goes into maintaining them …

- “Aljunied trash index aims to wipe out litterbugs.” (Straits Times, May 5, 2008)

The truth about life insurance

Tan Kin Lian

Many people buy life insurance to provide financial security to their family. If premature death occurs, the policy provides a cash sum to take care of the future financial needs of the family.

Insurance agents are drilled into thinking that they play a “noble” role in safeguarding the future of many families. This is half the truth.

Here is the other half: Many families are being grossly overcharged for the modest financial protection offered by the life insurance policy. After deducting the high expenses, their net savings do not earn a sufficient yield for them to live on during their retirement.

Waiting for Godot

Farquhar

Waiting for Godot

Farquhar comes earlier this week and takes a look at the state of the opposition parties on the second anniversary of Polling Day – May 6 2006.

The Opposition is in danger of missing the chance to build on its gains of 2006

Both Acts of Beckett’s play “Waiting for Godot” end in the same lamentable fashion. The two protagonists, having wasted an entire day in a series of pointless diversions (one of which was a laughable attempt to commit suicide) while waiting for an acquaintance that never shows, finally agree to depart the scene. But then they put that off as well and remain where they are at the close of the Act, consigned to repeating the same routine in perpetuity.

TOC Message

The editors and writers of theonlinecitizen would like to extend our condolences to the families of those who have perished as a result of the devastating cylone which has hit Burma.

We would also like to extend an offer of help to our Burmese friends in Singapore. Please do let us know if TOC can be of any assistance. We can be reached at theonlinecitizen@gmail.com

TOC also urges the Singapore government to do all it can to help the people of Burma in this time of need.

TOC editorial team.

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Former CEO of NTUC Income calls for “collective protest”

Former Chief Executive of NTUC Income, Mr Tan Kin Lian, is calling for a “collective protest” against Income’s “bonus cut”.

In his blog posting, Tan says that he “will be asking a lawyer to organise policyholders who wish to submit a collective protest against the bonus cut. This will be sent to the board of directors and to MAS.”

Here are two excerpts from Tan’s blog posting.

We have bought many life insurance polices with NTUC Income that are affected by the recent cut in annual bonus. The reduction in bonus is about 45%. We understand that this large cut will apply not just for one year but for every year into the future.

When we bought the policies, we were given a benefit illustration showing how the future bonuses would be distributed. While the actual bonuses were not guaranteed, we expect that NTUC Income would honour the underlying promise to distribute the bonuses in the manner that was illustrated.

You can read the entire blog posting here: Tan Kin Lian.

To participate in the protest, click here.

Read also: “Tan Kin Lian, an upset Income customer” by TODAY.

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